So Normal
by TellMeMore90
Summary: Connor and Abby Temple are finally man and wife. What happens in those first few weeks will decide their whole future.


**So Normal**

Connor and Abby sat in the living room of their new home in south west London. It wasn't a huge house, just 3 bedrooms and a small garden, but the kitchen/diner was a good size and the attic room made a reasonable fitness studio – necessary for dinosaur chasing and to keep Becker from nagging them.

They had not long got back from their honeymoon, but had been thrown straight back in to the day to day chaos that was the ARC. Connor was still unpicking the aftermath of Prospero and New Dawn, but had come up with some inspired ideas for some new devices to make their lives easier. He was also re-examining Cutter and Sarah's work on anomaly mapping and prediction and was busily creating a new computer-based modelling tool. To his great surprise, Lester had agreed that he could now have his own team of assistants, none of whom bore any similarity to April in ethics or affiliations and all of whom had been carefully schooled in Cutter's ethos of anomalies. The upside was that the assistants were more than capable of dealing with most issues at an anomaly site meaning Connor wasn't constantly on call.

Abby on the other hand, was investigating ways to improve the lives of the stranded creatures and, now that anomalies were in the public domain, was liaising with various zoos, universities and the Natural History Museum to create a research facility for the animals. The plan was not only to study and care for the living creatures whilst waiting to send them back to their own eras, but to tie the information gleaned in to the fossil record with a view to making identification and interpretation of fossils easier. A genome project had also been started to try to identify the evolutionary map of these ancient creatures to their modern descendants. The implications for advancements in the field of genetic research and also in the possible identification of the origins of homo sapiens could not be underestimated.

Given the amount of time they'd taken to finally get together, plus the trials and tribulations of New Dawn and the emotional strain that had placed on them, Abby and Connor had taken the decision to ignore the issues anomalies caused in their domestic life and to strive for some level of normalcy when away from the ARC. To this end they had begun to use their new levels of free time to get involved with local groups in the community and to make friends outside of the ARC. They had also decided to try to start a family - Abby had stopped taking the pill on the first day of their honeymoon and was now happily letting nature take its course.

0-0-0-0

That first morning had been quite momentous. They were curled up together in the large bed in the honeymoon suite of their hotel. They'd decided to go to the Canary Islands because some of the terrain reminded them of the land of the Mer creatures – the place where Connor had first said "I love you". At the time, and for many months afterwards, the memory had been terrifying to both of them, especially Abby. But as time wore on, the memory of Connor's words and his complete willingness to surrender his life for her had taken over and subsumed any lingering nightmares. Now they viewed it as where their love truly began.

They lay in the soft white linen, flushed with the joy of having just woken as husband and wife and stroking gentle patterns on each others skin. Room service had delivered a luscious champagne breakfast and this sat on a trolley next to the table by the balcony window.

Connor roused himself from devouring the sight of his beautiful wife, ran his hand through his messy hair and then eased himself off the bed and towards the breakfast trolley. "Champagne love?" he said over his shoulder as he twisted the bottle by its neck in the ice bucket and eyed the tempting fruit platter.

"Lovely" replied Abby dreamily. She savoured the view of her husband, the sunlight cascading around him, and appreciated how truly beautiful he was, both inside and out. She felt like the luckiest woman alive.

Connor brought the fruit platter with forks and napkins over to the bed before returning to open the champagne and pour two glasses. Miraculously he managed to complete these tasks without breaking anything with the cork, or spilling the champagne either from the bottle or the glasses. Abby quirked an eyebrow in surprise at his apparent dexterity. "You canna change the laws of physics love" quipped Connor in his best Scotty voice as he realised why she wore a look of subtle surprise.

He returned to the bed and handed a flute of golden liquid to his wife. As he sat on the bed and they touched their glasses together a slight shadow passed across his face.

"Are you ready to do this, because we can wait if you want to? I don't want you to feel like you're being pushed into it. I know we've discussed it so many times, but the plans we made in the Cretaceous always assumed that we would have the anomalies under control ..."

Abby rubbed her hand up Connor's arm to quiet and calm him. "This is what I want. This is what we want and need. If we don't start thinking in terms of being able to have a normal life then we never will and the anomalies will dominate everything. You know Lester has already agreed that we can step back from front line operations and into full time research should the need arise. We've got our home all sorted. Let's get on with our lives and start our married life as any other normal couple, yeah?"

Connor pinched his lips together, furrowed his brow slightly and gave one of his little jerky nods before relaxing his jaw, smiling and leaning over to kiss his wife.

"Bubbly's getting warm" he grinned and touched his glass to hers with a slight chink before they both sipped. He picked up a strawberry off the fruit platter and offered it to his wife's lips. Abby leant forward slightly to sink her teeth into the soft flesh with a gentle sigh, "Emmm, delicious".

Breaking his total absorption in Abby's actions and expression of bliss, Connor shook his head slightly and brought his mind back to the matter at hand.

"OK, let's do this." He picked up the small litter bin from under the bedside table and held it out to Abby. "My beloved wife and light of my life, would you care to deposit the chains of our old life in this receptacle?"

"Nicely said, you've obviously been practicing" smirked Abby, then pulling a straight face she opened the drawer in the bedside table, picked up the box that lay there and with great pomp, held it delicately over the bin. "I hereby declare our future officially ... commenced" and with that the box of birth control pills dropped into the bin, which was then returned to its place under the table.

Champagne glasses where again clinked and the bubbling liquid sipped, before Connor and Abby collapsed on the bed in blissful giggles, which then lead to so much more.

0-0-0-0

All that was 12 weeks ago, and this morning Abby was sitting in their living room sipping water and looking pale and exhausted.

"You OK love? Feelin' better?" asked Connor, gently rubbing circles on his wife's back, concern etched across his features.

Abby looked into his beautiful brown eyes and gave a wan smile. "Better now love. It looks like we'll be talking to Lester this morning about reviewing the research budget."

Connor's eyebrows shot up as a look of awe and delight spread across his face. "You mean it was positive? You're…..? I'm going to be a Daddy?"

Connor started to squirm in his seat and tentatively reached out his hands towards his wife, as if he wasn't sure if he should touch her. Abby grabbed his wrists and drew his hands to her waist, before she cupped her own hands on his cheeks and wiped away his tears of elation, as her own tears began to flow.

Touching their foreheads together, she looked deep into his eyes. "Connor Temple, welcome to your future" she whispered as she pulled him into a tender kiss.

Connor had never thought it could happen to him, but now he had what he had always dreamed of, what his mother had always wanted for and promised to her darling boy – meet your special someone, fall in love, get married, have babies, be happy.

Solving the enigma of the anomalies, meeting George Lucas and being awarded a Nobel Prize could wait for another day.

END


End file.
